1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to the servicing of automatic transmissions for vehicles, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for flushing a vehicle's automatic transmission cooling system.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
Vehicular automatic transmissions are well-known, and typically are interconnected with a cooling system for cooling the automatic transmission hydraulic fluid that circulates within the transmission. Most such cooling systems include a cooler within the bottom of the vehicle's radiator, immersed in circulating water therein, so that the cooled circulating water within the radiator cools the transmission fluid that circulates from the transmission, through the cooler, and back to the transmission. The transmission fluid typically flows through a fine metal weave within the cooler, thereby transferring heat from the fluid to the weave and subsequently into the cooling water surrounding the cooler within the radiator.
However, when a vehicle's automatic transmission fails, fine metal particles are released into the circulating transmission fluid and become trapped in the transmission cooling system's cooler, usually within the fine metal weave. These metallic particles must be flushed from the transmission cooling system before a repaired or replacement transmission is installed, lest the particles circulate back into the new transmission with the new transmission's cooling fluid, thereby contaminating the new transmission and causing it to fail within a short period of time.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus and method for flushing a vehicle's automatic transmission cooling system.
Heretofore, the fluid lines that interconnect the cooling system to the automatic transmission have been connected during flushing to various pumps, air compressors, or the like, and mineral spirits have been pumped through the cooling system to flush the metal particles therefrom. However, pumping equipment or air compressors for performing such a flushing operation are typically only found in transmission service shops, and are unavailable for small shops or the "do-it-yourself" auto mechanic. Additionally, increased concern for the environment has created an awareness of the hazards of dumping chemical solutions (as might be employed in prior flushing methods) into the sewage system.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus and method for flushing a vehicle's automatic transmission cooling system that is inexpensive and disposable, that uses no chemical flushing agents that might harm the environment, and that requires no attachment to pumping machinery, air compressors, or the like.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 165, subclass 5, and Class 134, subclasses 22.11 and 22.14, produced the following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: Stearman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,181, issued Nov. 5, 1985; Flanner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,996, issued May 1, 1990; Baylor et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,301, issued May 14, 1991; Abadi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,096, issued Jun. 4, 1991; and Light, U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,757, issued Mar. 10, 1992.
Additionally, APD Transmission Parts, Atlanta, Ga., is known to market a transmission cooler and line flusher under the tradename "PULSATOR" that mixes compressed air from a compressor with solvent to blast away contaminants from transmission cooling systems, as described in an advertisement in Transmission Digest (Jul. 1993). Raccoon Industries is known to market a transmission cooler and line flusher, as described in an advertisement in Transmission Digest (May 1993), that flushes the cooling system with heated automatic transmission fluid as pumped from a large drum by an electric pump motor. Glassinger & Company is known to market a transmission cooling system flusher that pumps a solvent from a twenty-gallon tank by an electric pump motor, as advertised in Transmission Digest (Aug. 1993). None of these documents or patents disclose or suggest the present invention.
During the prosecution of the parent to this application, the Examiner cited the following additional patents: Cross, U.S. Pat. No. 2,510,701, issued Jun. 6, 1950; Falk, U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,759, issued Apr. 27, 1965; Peters et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,551, issued Nov. 1, 1983;and Traylor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,587, issued Nov. 19, 1985.